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Life Impact Ministries

Life Impact was founded on and holds certain values that help define the “ethos” of our staff relationships, ministry outputs, and organizational operations.

SPIRITUAL VALUES: • Christian workers (missionaries, pastors, Christian humanitarian aid workers) are key to expanding and solidifying God’s Kingdom (His rule) on the earth Therefore we value keeping every harvest worker of all-Christian backgrounds working with strength in their ministries. • God is committed to caring for His Harvest Workers and uses called individuals to partner with Him in that process of caring In the Body of Christ, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.” – 1 Cor 12:4-6 Our Oases function best with a gifted and called caregiver, who loves hospitality; motivated by seeing others thrive in their ministries. • Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s leading allows each staff to provide essential, directed, effective care to an Oasis guest Spiritual people provide spiritual ministry. In the final analysis, it is the Spirit’s deep work in the heart of a person through His sanctifying process that strengthens Christian workers for their ministry. Therefore Life Impact staff are seeking to: o Be empowered with inner strength through His Spirit (Eph 3:16) o Live by the Spirit (Gal 5:16, 25) o Keep in step with the Spirit (Gal 5:25) o Not grieve the Spirit (Eph 4:30) o Exercise their gifts of the Spirit (1 Pet 4:10) • A Staff Prayer Team makes a qualitative, spiritual difference in our care Because our ministry is a spiritual ministry, we are commanded to ask God to work powerfully in people’s lives. In Eph 6:18, Paul writes to the Ephesian prayer team, “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” However God chooses to act in response to prayer, our desire is for each Oasis to have a committed team of intercessors involved with that ministry.

STAFF VALUES: • A Personal Calling to care ministry is more vital than age and experience This is true because God will take those He’s called and prepares them in His way to accomplish His purposes. He took King David at a young age with herding experience to lead Israel. He did not look qualified, yet He was chosen. He Himself started His ministry at a young age. Then He took twelve young men from varied backgrounds with various gifts, but with spiritual hearts, to be His disciples. They became the foundation of the Church. And any of us who are older and have experience, remember our early days when someone took a chance on us so we could gain the experience so valued. • We want to be an “intergenerational” staff It is important for us to have called workers from each generation to ensure that our care is relevant to the various generations. It is also essential in order to ensure the future of care to future Christian workers. This will also create “understanding” within the organization for generational perspectives and differences.

MINISTRY VALUES: • Our Care is provided best by workers “retreating” from their stressful ministry locations into a quiet and emotionally safe place This defines both why we have “Oases,” as well as the essence of those Oases and our ministry within them. • We want to provide quality care services at a minimum cost to the worker Each Staff member has their own donor team who provide their support and operational costs so ministry to guests can be given at minimal cost. We believe there’s value in guests contributing something to the Oasis ministry, but at their initiative. We suggest a certain donation amount per day for an Oasis stay, but do not operate on a “quid-pro-quo” basis. • We are not a teaching or counseling organization We rather facilitate ministry through a “coach approach” – listening well; asking good questions; moving their agenda forward by helping them discover new perspectives; and “mentoring” them from our experience when helpful. At the same time we contribute biblical insight and help when appropriate.

ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES: • Life Impact is Evangelical in our core, but inclusive in our services We are an Evangelical organization that lines up theologically in the evangelical camp. Therefore all of our Staff must agree with our doctrinal statement, and have a personal experience with Christ that is discernable. However, our care does not stop within evangelicalism. Being an evangelical organization does not hinder us from ministering to workers of all “stripes” of Christendom. We do not turn people away from our Oasis doors because of their theological perspective. Our ministry is not one of “teaching” or of “theological debate” or of “theological training” or of “theological criticism.” Our ministry is to ensure that the workers God sends to us are cared for, encouraged, strengthened, and blessed by our ministry and the presence of the Oasis Host. Our ministry is not to agree with everyone, but to care for everyone the Lord sends us whom we can serve with a clear conscience. • Life Impact is Interdenominational and International in our Staff make-up That means all staff are affiliated with some local Christian church and contribute to the Body of Christ and God’s Kingdom through a local Body, as well as through their LI ministry. We recognize the richness we each gain by our close co-laborship with those of other perspectives on the Christian faith. (see document “How to Handle Doctrinal Difference.) • The Life Impact Organization exists to serve the Staff, not vice versa Our perspective on organizational development is that God is committed to only one institution in the OT, and that is Israel. In the New Testament, Christ did not die for an institution but rather for individuals who are His Body, His Church. Any “organizational church” exists to facilitate Christ’s disciples and not vice versa. This defines Life Impact’s perspective on the organization as well. The organization exists to serve the Staff and not vice-versa. We recognize there is a practical, dynamic tension between the needs and desires of staff, and effective functioning of the organization to maintain good policies and our legal status with the IRS. However this value moves the Executive Leadership Team and the Board to lean in the direction of facilitating staff with the organization, rather than using staff to build the organization. • Balancing that tension, we facilitate staff according to their faith and not ours In 2 Cor. 1:24, Paul says he related to the believers on the basis of their faith, and not his. That principle we apply in our organizational relationship with each staff member. • We value Staff Care We realize the tremendous energy expended by, and stress created on, a staff caregiver bringing care to others on a consistent basis. Therefore we have policies in place to help them remain strong, and have an executive team bringing oversight to each staff member to strengthen them and their ministry. As we care for others, our commitment is also to care for our staff.